HALLIFAX & JEFFREY with Marie Dalby Szuts, Josh Lee and John Lenti

Big, Beautiful and French: Music for Several Viols and Continuo

From Louis Couperin to Jean-Baptiste Forqueray and Michel Corette , the French composers we know and love also wrote rarely-heard music for a large ensemble of viols with continuo. This is true chamber music, yet written on a larger scale than the familiar pieces de viole or pieces de violon. At times the texture approaches the orchestral, yet the music retains the intimacy that is the hallmark of the viol and the lute.

The famous 4-part masterpieces Corette’s Le Phenix and Couperin’s La Sultane are cornerstones of this program, which also includes stunning contributions from Forqueray, Marc-Antoine Charpentier, and Jean Philippe Rameau.

HALLIFAX & JEFFREY (Peter Hallifax and Julie Jeffrey) first came together in 2005 to play the music of Forqueray, the last of the great French 18th century viola da gamba players. The success of their first concerts led them to expand their repertoire; first to the other French masters, Couperin, Dollé, and Marais; then to English music, focusing in particular on duos and chamber ensembles of Simpson, Locke, Jenkins, and their contemporaries. Most recently they have immersed themselves in the vast and fascinating repertoire of English music for lyra viols, by Hume, Coperario, Lawes and others. Hallifax & Jeffrey have performed extensively on their home turf, the San Francisco Bay Area, and have toured throughout the Western states with many programs. They favor intimate performances in small venues such as homes, cafes and museums, but also play in larger concert settings, such as the San Francisco Early Music Society Series, the Berkeley Early Music Festival and the Sonora Early Music Festival.

Devoted to promoting engagement with Early Music at the grassroots level, Hallifax & Jeffrey have established their own homegrown concert series, Barefoot Chamber Concerts, which features The Bay Area’s best local musicians performing in a relaxed, friendly setting, and frequently draws sell-out audiences.